On January 22, Dr. Judy Mikovits, PhD, director of research for the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease,* conducted a 2½-hour XMRV seminar in Santa Barbara that was streamed live online to an audience of more than 1,100.

The patient-oriented event was sponsored by the HHV-6 Foundation & ProHealth. It reflects many hours of preparation by Dr. Mikovits and the WPI staff, including Founder and President Annette Whittemore, who offered a proud introduction.

The highly informative presentation and Q&A covered a multitude of intriguing details, clarifications, insights, and plans that patients and researchers worldwide have been speculating about for months - since discovery of the XMRV retrovirus in ME/CFS patients’ blood was reported last October in the journal Science,** and a later paper by UK researchers in PLoS One reported finding none. It is information that may in time relate to many "unexplained" illnesses.

Though the online audience experienced a storm-caused break in Internet transmission, full video coverage of the entire event can now be accessed at http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=15114. For those who wish to view the proceedings at their own pace, each of the videos can be downloaded.

Also in the days ahead, watch ProHealth.com for:

• Dr. Mikovits’ answers to many questions that were submitted to her in advance by e-mail and may not have been covered in the presentation and Q&A.

• Downloadable copies of the slide set used.

• Summaries of highlights and impressions from the seminar and discussion period.

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* Located within the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Center for Molecular Medicine, the Whittemore Peterson Institute (www.wpinstitute.org) will be the nation’s first comprehensive translational research facility dedicated to the research and treatment of neuro-immune diseases when it opens September of 2010.